Intelligent predator
Into the mouth of the narrator, the author puts words which prove the author’s deep knowledge of human psychology, and one of such an image of a “meek, gentle person” is created: “The gentle and soft-hearted do not resist long, and though they are by no means very ready to reveal themselves, they do not know how to escape from a conversation; they are niggardly in their answers, but they do answer, and the more readily the longer you go on”. But a big disaster is that this knowledge, in the story’s plot, is not used with good goals, the narrator uses it to manipulate a person, in his case his future wife.
Terrible reminiscence
The image of a “battle” between the narrator and his wife is depicted at the moment when she puts a gun to his head thinking that he is asleep: “She came up to the bed and stood over me. I heard everything; though a dead silence had fallen I heard that silence. All at once there was a convulsive movement and, irresistibly, against my will, I suddenly opened my eyes. She was looking straight at me, straight into my eyes, and the revolver was at my temple. Our eyes met. But we looked at each other for no more than a moment. With an effort I shut my eyes again, and at the same instant I resolved that I would not stir and would not open my eyes, whatever might be awaiting me.” She did not shoot, and the narrator thinks that he has won the “battle”, that he has settled his position in the family, and this positions stands over his wife.
Social realities of the time
The image of how young people had to survive at the time of Dostoevsky is emphasized by the narrator’s words: “It was that she was terribly young, so young that she looked just fourteen. And yet she was within three months of sixteen.” And yet at the age of almost sixteen, a young girl had to look for a job to be able to survive in the world. Surely her case is not the only one, there were a lot of young people who had to work and had no support from the families.